European Parliament Acts Quickly to Pass Data-Protection Vote

Europe’s data protection reform manages to constantly surprise. Having looked like it was going the way of the single patent (over a decade of debate), this summer’s revelations about the National Security Agency’s activities provided a rush of new support, including Angela Merkel’s making the matter an issue in her election campaign.

But things got crazier still when the legislation produced another shock: a speedy committee vote in the European Parliament. After plenty of official emails about how the process would work once talks got close to midnight, lawmakers in the civil liberties committee took less than an hour to almost unanimously approve nearly 4,000 amendments to European Union Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding’s original plan. At least one parliament insider in Strasbourg had to cancel his dinner, having sensibly assumed he’d have plenty of time to follow the vote afterwards.

Next in the EU decision-making process (explanation here), the parliament will try to negotiate directly with the European Council to get an acceptable compromise – and with leaders meeting here Thursday the pressure is on.

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